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COMMENTARY
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The Fight is On for Student Loans!
March 19, 2010
WATSON SCOTT SWAIL, President & CEO of the Educational Policy Institute
Yesterday afternoon, The House Education and Labor Committee announced that it will include its legislative reform of the student loan system in the reconciliation bill containing the Health Care plan. If passed, on July 1, 2010 every Title IV institution in the United States will become part of the Federal Direct Student Loan Program (FDSLP). After 45 years, the Federal Family Education Loan Program, or FFELP, will fade away. To put this in perspective, until recently, FFELP held 70 percent of the student loan business.
For a quick backgrounder, The Clinton Administration introduced the Direct Loan Program back in the 1990s, with the idea of doing exactly what the Democrats are now ready to legislate. Take the loan business from private lenders, who get a subsidy from the government, and bring it inhouse. However, the Republican Congress limited the role of the FDSLP and only about 20-25 percent of the institutions decided to go to the Direct Program. Up until a year ago, about 30 percent of institutions used the FDSLP; the remainder using the FFELP. READ MORE...
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| STATISTIC OF THE WEEK |
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A projected 3.7 million full-time-equivalent (FTE) elementary and secondary school teachers were engaged in classroom instruction in fall 2008. This number has risen 15 percent since 1998. The 2008 projected number of FTE teachers includes 3.2 million public school teachers and 0.5 million private school teachers.
Source: NCES
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THE NEWS
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ACADEMIC PREPARATION
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Mobile learning makes its mark on K-12
By The Editors, Education Week
Mobile devices such as smartphones and iPods, still seen as nuisances or contraband by many schools, are now viewed by an increasing number of teachers and administrators as cost-effective tools to build and sustain 1-to-1 computing programs. From the perspective of many educators, mobile devices have the potential to transform teaching and learning by engaging students more deeply in lessons and promoting anytime, anywhere learning. The problem is that there is no real proof of the impact of mobile devices on learning, at least not the kind of large-scale empirical data that might persuade decision makers that the investment needed to equip classrooms and train teachers would pay off in higher student achievement.
Stagnating NAEP math scores seen as no surprise
By Debra Viadero, Education Week
When 4th grade mathematics scores on the National Assessment of Education Progress seemed to stall between 2007 and 2009 after years of steadily climbing, some experts pronounced the results disappointing. But a report released today suggests that the lack of continued progress may have been a necessary correction after a long and possibly unrealistic trajectory, rather than a cause for discouragement.
Plan to rework “No Child” prompts concerns for rural areas
By Nick Anderson, Washington Post
Senate Republicans raised questions Wednesday about whether President Obama's plan to turn around struggling schools would fly in rural America. One Democrat said she worried that many states would be shortchanged of federal funding they need to improve teaching. But for the most part, Education Secretary Arne Duncan drew a positive reception from key lawmakers as he began pitching the administration's blueprint to rewrite the No Child Left Behind law. The central goal, he said, is to replace what is now a pass-fail accountability system with one that rewards academic growth and intervenes aggressively when schools fail.
Study suggests improvements on admissions to selective high schools
By Azam Ahmed, The Chicago Tribune
Chicago public school officials released an audit Wednesday offering suggestions to improve the fairness of admissions to highly selective high schools. The audit suggests ways to curb wrongdoing, such as centralizing admissions decisions and overhauling the guidelines for principal discretion – a practice that allows the school leaders to handpick 5 percent of students to the most elite schools.
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| POST SECONDARY ACCESS SUCCESS |
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College on edge after recent wave of student suicides
By Cassie Spodak, CNN
A wave of suicides at Cornell University in the past two semesters is a “public health crisis,” the school’s mental health initiatives director said. The Ithaca Police Department reported four student suicides during the fall 2009 semester, and at least two over the last two months. In February, a freshman jumped off a bridge over one of the area’s well-known gorges. Last Thursday, the body of a sophomore engineering major was found under similar circumstance. The cause of the wave of suicides is unclear and Cornell had no suicides from 2005 to 2008.
The Latino complexion gap, examined
By Doug Lederman, InsideHigherEd
With Latino Americans expected to make up more than 20 percent of the college-age population by 2020, most policy makers recognize that it will be nearly impossible to meet President Obama’s college completion goals without significant improvement in the graduation rates of Hispanic students. A new analysis digs more deeply into data surrounding Latino graduation rates, and while it confirms the overall reality that Latino students trail their white peers at all types of institutions, no matter how selective, it also reveals wide variation in the relative success of institutions with similar student bodies. That matters, authors say, because it shows that the educational practices of institutions matter.
Arne Duncan and NCAA differ on how to score teams’ academic success
By Andrea Fuller, The Chronicle of Higher Education
On the eve of the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball tournament, Arne Duncan, U.S. secretary of education, has called on the National Collegiate Athletic Association to ban teams with graduation rates below 40 percent from future tournaments. The association responded that it shared the secretary’s concern but not his proposed remedy. Graduation-success rates are not current enough to be the basis for such a penalty, it says. The NCAA has another gauge of how athletes are doing academically, the academic-progress rate, or APR, which it says measures "real-time academic performance" and is a "much better indicator of classroom success" of current athletes.
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| INTERNATIONAL NEWS |
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Muslim Students Continue Street Protest
By Melanie Newman, The Times Higher Education
Hundreds of Muslim students have been holding prayers outside City University London for a month in protest at the closure of a prayer room used exclusively by them. Alternative shared accommodation was offered but the students declare that “multi-faith” alternatives are unacceptable. All-male groups have been praying on the pavement outside City since 15 February, with more than 200 reportedly turning up for Friday prayers in Northampton Square.
Indian cabinet backs foreign schools
By Vikas Bajaj, The New York Times
The Indian cabinet approved a bill on Monday that would allow foreign universities to set up campuses in the country, a major break with previous policy in which outside institutions were seen as a threat to the education system. The bill, still subject to a decision by Parliament, appears to be an acknowledgment by public officials that the country’s largely public higher education system cannot cope with the rising demand for degrees from a large population of young people. The bill would require universities to invest a minimum of about $11 million and would prohibit them from repatriating profits, a condition that could limit the appeal of an Indian campus to those universities that view overseas programs as money-making ventures.
Yearn to earn put on hold as students stick to education
By Stephen Lunn and James Robertson, The Australian
More young people are opting to learn rather than earn, with the proportion of those staying on in education instead of taking a job increasing in the past 10 years. A new Australian Bureau of Statistics report finds that, although the overall proportion of 15-24-year0olds “fully engaged in either education or work” has hovered around 80 per cent since 1999, those in education rose from 45 per cent to 48 per cent. The study, part of the ABS’s quarterly Social Trends series, notes participation in education or work is critical to overall wellbeing in young people, with those in neither more prone to long-term employment insecurity.
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| REPORTS WORTH READING |
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Squeeze Play 2010: Continued Public Anxiety on Cost, Harsher Judgments on How Colleges Are Run
A new joint report from Public Agenda and the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education -- tracks current public attitudes towards higher education and finds that a majority of Americans see colleges as more concerned with the bottom line than the educational experience of students. Results of interest to policymakers include the finding that more and more people believe that postsecondary institutions could increase enrollment and maintain quality without having to raise tuition and fees. This public ambivalence regarding postsecondary finances means that higher education leaders will need to craft more specific and compelling arguments in the future beyond simply asking states for more resources.
State Test Score Trends Through 2007-2008: Are There Differences in Achievement Between Boys and Girls?
This new study by the Center for Educational Policy (CEP) analyzed state assessment data by gender and found good news for girls but troubling news for boys. According to CEP’s study, the lagging performance by boys in reading is the most pressing gender-gap issue facing our schools. In some states, the percentage of boys performing at proficient in reading is more than 10 percentage points below that of girls. And that trend is consistent at the elementary, middle, and high school levels, the study finds.
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